From touch everything to don't touch anything

I knew I should have updated my blog last week. I usually update about every two weeks. Last week it had only been one week since my last update, but I was feeling kind of like I should write an update anyway. We'd had a slightly busy week and I knew it would be a good idea to do the update while it was fresh in my mind. But I was tired from that busy week and had a few other projects I was working on instead.

I thought, "next week isn't that busy, it will be easy to write about both weeks next week."

Nope, this week has been crazy. Not in a busy way but crazy in a "hey this is officially a pandemic and now I'm writing what might be considered a primary source document in a few decades" way. No pressure.

So yeah, I'll try to do my best to recap my family's experiences with Corona Virus. But first we really need to talk about last week. So we are going to travel back in time to the care free days of March 1-8 when Corona Virus was just getting a few mentions in some of the news reports I read. And then there will be a bit of a tonal shift when we talk about March 9-15th when everything non-virus related seemed out of place.

March 1st was a Sunday. After church we worked on a science project for a STEM fair the school was having that week. Anyone who entered the fair with a project would get a prize and that was enough motivation for Charlotte and Lydia to want to work on a project.

I didn't want to do a complicated project. I decided the easiest thing to do would be to test different cleaning products to see which would clean a penny best. I already knew what would work (Salt and Vinegar) but I didn't want to tell the kids that. So I let them come up with a whole list of cleaning products and slipped Vinegar and Salt into the list.

We set up a little chart with our different ideas for cleaning products and the dirty pennies. To keep this somewhat scientific we used pennies made after 1982 (pennies made before 1982 are pure copper, but we didn't have enough of those.)

Then we got out all the cleaning products and got cups ready for each one. We tested each product one and a time for 30 seconds. Brandon was around to help out and take notes. Charlotte and Lydia were the main testers, but Derrick and Veronica each helped with one.

It was a lot of fun. Vinegar and Salt worked best as expected. But Scrubbing bubbles bathroom cleaner came in a surprise second. Overall this was a super easy project that only cost 20 cents. Feel free to steal the idea if needed.

Monday was the start of Doctor Seuss Week at the school. Every day there were funny assignments for the kids to wear. I like our school because they keep the themes pretty easy. Monday was pajama day. They wore green on Tuesday, Funny Socks on Wednesday, Birthday attire on Thursday (some of the kids wore birthday hats) and Friday was wear a shirt from your favorite high school or college.) The kids had fun wearing their pajamas on Monday. 

Here they all are pretending to be animals with Marsha. 

I got the kids dropped off at school and then headed to work. On the way I was listening to Baconsale which is one of my favorite podcasts. The hosts read a comment I'd left on their Facebook Page the week before. This isn't the first time that's happened. But WOW it made my day to hear my name and my comment. This put me in such a good mood and kicked off a super productive day.

It was one of those days where everything I touched seemed to turn to gold. On these types of days my dad often said, "Touch Everything." And so throughout the day I tried to get as much done as possible.  Here are some of the things I did.

When I got home from work I put together a little survey for reviews for my blog. This was an idea from the business class that I'm taking. I wanted a way to show readers that they were visiting a blog worth reading. So I put up the survey for reviews. I also turned it into a contest which was fun to promote. The comments were also very encouraging.

In other writing news I did a few things that I've meant to do for a while. I applied to be a contributor for a travel website. (technically I reapplied because I'd been accepted back when we lived in Alabama but then chickened out from actually writing anything.) I e-mailed two publications with story ideas and emailed another place for a little detail I needed for a story. Hopefully something will come out of some of these seeds I planted on this golden day.

I also got an email from Idaho Parents Unlimited - an organization that helps parents of special needs kids navigate services and things like that. Back in January a friend had encouraged me to apply for their Parent Leadership Development Retreat in April. I'd applied in January and was interviewed over the phone in February. On this wonderful Monday in March I found out I'd been accepted. I get to go to a 5 day long retreat and get trained to develop my skills as an advocate. I'm so excited.

In the middle of all this we had a package delivered to our door that was addressed to Brandon. I had not idea what it was, so I sent this picture to Brandon. He had no idea either.

He did have a guess though.  He's wanted to have a Youtube channel for a long time, but hasn't known what it should be about. Well a few weeks ago he helped someone with a question about how to put together a Remote control Airplane. He had fun answering the question and knew what he was talking about. I told Brandon, "That's your Youtube channel."

He agreed and then got excited. He wrote an email to about 20 different RC plane companies telling them about his idea for a channel and asking them to send him a plane to demonstrate on his channel. A few days later one person responded and asked for Brandon's address. Brandon was guessing this was the plane.

After dinner we opened the box, and yes there was an RC plane inside!!! Brandon doesn't even have a channel name picked out and he already got free stuff.  This was just awesome. He's been working on the plane and filming a lot of what he does. But he still doesn't have a channel name.  We are open to suggestions.



Also somehow I found time to help the girls put together a poster for their STEM fair. We even sent pictures to Walgreens and picked them up while Derrick was at therapy. We got the whole poster done just in time because it was due on Tuesday.

Whew.

Charlotte also made this cute little home for her mice family.

It's just adorable.

Tuesday wasn't quite as busy or as lucky as Monday had been, but it was still a good day. Lydia gave her presentation on Bev Doolittle for her class. She basically wore her Artist Halloween Costume, but I forgot to get a picture (I was too busy making sure everyone had green to wear for Green Eggs and Ham Day.)

I have a goal to write for 1 hour every day this month. I've figured out that if I take Marcia (and Veronica) on a walk in the early afternoon Marcia (and Veroncia) will leave me alone when we get home. But it's basically only an hour. That's forced me to really buckle down and get to writing instead of playing around on Facebook or paying bills for 20 minutes before getting started.

I also had a ministering interview in the afternoon. Veronica came with me like she does to everything in the afternoon. I had two separate ladies ask me if she was home sick that day. Nope, this is just my really tall kindergartner.

When we went to get Derrick after school Veronica wore a headlamp that she'd found in the car. She was wearing my jacket and pretended to be a veterinarian.

She's so funny.

The weather was amazing so the kid played outside after school nearly every day of the week.

For the boys activity this week Derrick went to the nursing home that our ward has partnered up with to take the sacrament to the residents. He and the other boys talked with the residents there. Derrick came home and said he'd met "A Grandma."

I can't remember much in particular about Wednesday.  It was my last day of work for the week since my boss was going out of town for a conference on Thursday and Friday.

On Wednesday night I read Harry Potter to Charlotte and Lydia while they worked on their entries for the Art and Soul Art Contest. Entries were due on Sunday. Lydia drew this picture of children playing in the snow on a winter day. Charlotte worked on making something out of fuse beads.

On Thursday I went to the temple. I haven't found a good day/time to go since starting work so I wanted to take advantage of this day off that the kids weren't home. It was a good visit, but the whole time I was thinking about how I had to pick up Veronica at 11:00 and was hoping I'd be done in time. I was done by about 10:40 and was at the school before Veronica came out so now I know that I can make it through a temple session and pick up Veronica on time. When I got out of the temple I saw quail running across the grounds. They were hard to get a picture of.

The flowers were easier to see.

I picked up Veronica and we had lunch at home. Then we took Marcia for a walk on the canyon rim trail that is nearish to our house. We have to drive there, but it only takes about 5 minutes. Walking Marcia with Veronica is always an experience. They usually end up tangled together.

On our way home we stopped at Webb Garden Center which is really near our house. We drive by it a lot and I've wanted to go in for a long time. They have lots of fun things there. Veronica climbed on this big log outside.

She was pretty proud of herself.

The sad news on Thursday was that Elizabeth Warren dropped out of the presidential race. I'd been supporting her for over a year and had donated some money to her campaign. I was really looking forward to voting for her in the Idaho Primary on March 10th, but she hadn't done well on Super Tuesday two days earlier. This left just Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden for me to choose from.

Thursday evening was the STEM fair. All week I'd assumed the fair started at 5:30 so I figured we'd have a quick dinner when Brandon got home from work at 5:00 and then run over to the fair. But Thursday afternoon I checked my calendar and realized the Fair ENDED at 5:30. It really started at 4:00. Thank goodness I'd figured that out ahead of time.

So at 4:00 we headed over to the school. The kids all entered a drawing for door prizes and got free books. Then we went to look around. Here's Charlotte and Lydia's poster.  They hadn't won, but they did each get a Diary of a Wimpy Kid book so I consider that not bad for a 20 cent project.

The fair was really fun. There were lots of hands on things for the kids to do. Derrick enjoyed a homemade tornado and the girls played with legos before coming to this table to make things with marshmallows.

There was another room with some other gadgets in it. Derrick loved these little robots that followed lines. There was also a drone that all the kids got a turn to fly. My friend Kaymie's son ended up kind of in charge of the drone and I was so impressed by the way he helped everyone take turns and learn how to fly it.

Here's Charlotte with one of her creations.

Lydia with hers.

Derrick playing with an electronic kit.

Lydia with a little skier she'd made at another table.

All the girls working hard on creations.

We had a great time at the STEM fair, but it ended on a sad note. We didn't win any prizes in the drawing. Derrick was devastated. He cried the whole way home.

Friday was the end of the quarter. It was an early out for the older kids and no school for Veronica. We had a ton of errands to run. First we took Marcia on a walk. We went to a different part of the canyon trail. This part of the trail actually overlooks the canyon. 

It was so pretty.

We walked a little ways and found the overlook for the Perrine Coolie waterfall. We've seen this waterfall from the road down into the canyon, but I've never seen it from above.

Here it is again. You can see the switch back road really well.

And me with the waterfall. 

Then we got back to the car and went to Norco to get Derrick's pullups prescription, target for a gift card, Home Depot for a wheel barrow, and Smiths for hoagie buns for the next day. When we got back home I wanted to go a live story for the gift card giveaway on for the blog review contest. But  was way too tired to figure that out. So we just drew a name and posted a picture.

I took a nap after all that. I had an alarm set to wake me up at 12:25 so I could be at the school to get Derrick at 12:35. He get's out of school 10 minutes earlier than the other kids. Last time they'd had an early out I hadn't done the math right so I'd been late to pick Derrick up. And the time before that I'd forgot.  So I was determined to be there on time.

So imagine my panic when I woke up from my nap and it was 12:50!!!!!!

Veronica had been watching Youtube Videos on my phone and had dismissed the 12:25 alarm.

We RAN to get Derrick.  His para just laughed when I told her why I was late this time. Maybe I'll finally get it together at the end of 4th quarter.

Oh and speaking of Derrick.  He had a fabulous week for the first time in a long time. January and February had been rough because his teacher was gone a lot and the paraprofessionals' schedules was getting adjusted. I think it's finally settled down and Derrick is responding to the stability.

We didn't do anything very special during out extra time without school. We are in the process of getting Derrick onto Katie Beckett Medicaid and I'd scheduled Derrick's evaluation interview for this day. So the man who does that came by and asked me all sorts of questions. I hope Derrick qualifies, but I really don't know for sure.

When Brandon came home from work we had dinner. Normally we would have had movie night, but surprisingly we weren't in the mood for one. Instead Derrick and Brandon worked on the RC plane in the garage while I read Harry Potter to the girls in the house. Charlotte had quite the ambitious fuse bead project and was up against a deadline so I read to her while she worked. Later I helped sort out beads for her.

Saturday was a great day. It started with a writing project. The night before one of my friends asked on Facebook for anyone to tell her details about visiting Lava Hot Springs. I answered with a quick comment, but it reminded me that I've had a post about Lava Hot Springs half written for months. I realized I really should get it finished.

So on Saturday I tried to get up early and work on the project. But Marcia was needy and soon Veronica was awake. I wasn't too happy about having to entertain those two AGAIN after doing it so much all week. So I went in my room (I might have slammed my door in the process) and then wrote, researched, and edited photos for nearly 3 hours. In the end the post was done and I was feeling much calmer.

I came outside to apologize to everyone and to thank them for cleaning the house while I was hiding in my room. The house was silent. I thought that maybe they were all in the garage, but no one was out there. I checked the basement, no one was there either. The cars were still in the driveway. I felt like Kevin in Home Alone when he says, "I made my family disappear."  It was eerie.

A little bit later they all came back from their walk to the park. Then we got ready to go on a family adventure. I packed up some stuff and Brandon made hoagie sandwiches for us all.

We were planning to go to Black Magic Canyon. Brandon and I had both been hearing about the canyon a lot the last few months. It's a slot canyon carved through lava rock. Half of the year water runs through the canyon when the dam upriver lets off water. But in the winter months the canyon is open for visitors. We wanted to visit the canyon before the water started running again. I'd called the canal company to make sure the canyon would be clear just to be on the safe side.

I took this picture while we waited for Brandon to grab one last thing from the house. The kids were so excited to be going on an adventure.

We drove north on main roads for a while, but eventually we ended up on country roads and finally a dirt road. It didn't look like there could be anything very interesting out here.

We followed the directions in the Southern Idaho Geology Underfoot Book that Brandon bought at a lecture by the author a few weeks ago. Part of the directions literally involved using a single tree as a landmark - that's how boring the landscape was.

Eventually we made it to the designated area. There are several access points for Black Magic Canyon, we were going to the most northern access point above a small dam. We had to hike through sand for a little bit, but soon we were entering a canyon with lava rock on the sides.

The rock had all been polished super smooth by the dirt in the water that flows through here in the spring and summer.

We were all eager to see more.

The walls got closer together the deeper we went. 

I love this picture. 

Here's Lydia posing in the canyon.

Veronica had tripped a few times so we put her in this sandy area to take a break. 

Lydia looking at the canyon. Notice the snow.

Veronica in a better mood.

Charlotte posing on a rock.

All three girls being silly.  This was near the end of the canyon. We reached a point where we couldn't easily get past the rocks so we turned around and stared heading out.

Me and an arch.

Me again.

We came out of the canyon and decided to tackle the portion south of the little dam.

So we walked over there. But before we made it too far Veronica hurt her foot, and Derrick just randomly decided he was done hiking and started heading back to the car. I decided to go back to the car with those two and Brandon went on with Charlotte, Lydia, and Marcia. As I turned around I stepped on a wobbly rock and ended up slamming my thigh into a rock. I was okay, but it hurt enough that I was glad I was done hiking.

I did walk out on the edge of the dam and take this picture of Brandon and the twins in the canyon.

Derrick, Veronica and I went back to the car and moved it to where we thought Brandon and the twins would pop out of the canyon. This is the view of the tree from the directions. Across from it is a gully that leads to another access point for the canyon.

Derrick and Veronica pretended to drive the car while we waited. 

I kept expected the other three to pop out in front of us, but suddenly they showed up behind us. They'd found that part of the canyon really hard to walk through and so had turned around.

Brandon still wanted to see more of the canyon so we stayed in the car while he walked down to the access point by the tree and explored down there. He said it was cool, but by the time he was back it looked like there would be rain soon and we were tired so we decided to do that section when we come back in a few months. (Because we definitely will be back again.)

We had our hoagie sandwich dinner in the car. Everyone was in great moods from such a fun afternoon.

We drove back to Twin Falls and stopped at Arctic Circle for dessert. We'd finished our scripture reading goal for the month and this was our reward. Everyone got different flavors and shared bites with each other. Then the kids played on the play place for a bit.

Back at home we had baths and then went back to reading Harry Potter 5 while Charlotte worked on fuse beads. At the end of the day I realized that we hadn't turned the TV on at all during the whole day. I think that's the first time we've ever done that on a Saturday.

Okay and now we've made it to this week. This crazy week started out on a simple note. We noticed my tulips were starting to push up through the dirt.  This makes me so happy. I always worry about my tulips during the winter. What if something goes wrong and they don't come up. But they always do.

We had a great day at church. Our church starts at 10:30 and you'd think that would give us plenty of time to get to church on time, but we have a false sense of security every week. We've been almost late every week for the past month. Anyway, I finally set an alarm to leave on time and so we made it to church nice and early this time. We actually were there when the choir was rehearsing for a performance that day. Each of my kids asked me why I wasn't up there singing. I told them it's because of my business class, but I'll be back in the choir later.

After church I laid down to take a nap. When I woke up Lydia and Veronica were working together to make cookies. It was cute to hear them working together.

A little bit later we went on a walk on the same trail Veronica and I had discovered earlier in the week. Everyone loved the view.

And they thought the waterfall was cool to see.

Then we went down to Centennial Park so Derrick could throw rocks in the water. He did that for a very long time.

We had to leave the park so I could get to my business class. It was another good class. I'm in charge of being the time keeper and I make sure we stay on track. The class is two hours, but it goes by quickly.

Back at home we had dinner. Brandon helped Charlotte put all her fuse bead creations into the 3D house she envisioned. (It's actually not done, but since we don't have to turn in the finished piece until April I just needed a picture for now.) I submitted Charlotte and Lydia's art to the website just in time.

After the kids were in bed Brandon and I filled out the 2000 Alt-Rock Band Tournament Bracket in preparation for the Baconsale Episode the next day. Obviously we're Nickelback fans.

Monday was the start of Daylight Saving Time. Oh it was hard to get up in the morning. Somehow we made it to school on time, but none of us were happy about being back in the dark. Work went well, hanging out with Veronica and Marcia went well, writing went well, Derrick's day went well, etc. Derrick went to therapy and I read books with the girls. Veronica took this picture. It turned out really well. What's not pictured is that I fell asleep for a while after this. Children's books put me to sleep.

Here's a picture Veronica took of Marcia.

And a picture Veronica took of herself.

The girls made an elaborate bed covering for Marcia.

Tuesday morning was almost rougher than Monday morning had been. On our 5 minute drive to school the kids and I had at least 6 arguments.

Later in the day Veronica and I took Marcia on a walk on a new trail.

Veronica had forgotten her coat and so I wrapped her up in a blanket.

Within a few minutes she gave up on the blanket and ran around and had me take pictures.

Later she told was holding the blanket and said it's shadow looked like a bird.

After the walk we went to vote in the Presidential Primary. I ended up deciding to vote for Biden. The best way I can articulate my reasoning is to say, "Joe Biden may be boring, but I think boring is what we need right now."

I got more writing done on Tuesday. So far my goal to write 1 hour a day was paying off really well. Usually I set goals on how many writing projects I want to finish, but then I get depressed when I don't hit those goals. But I can write for an hour. So I've been feeling much better about my output lately.

Charlotte and Lydia had a girls activity at the church and I drove them there and then later picked them up. A little bit later Brandon drove back to the church to meet with the Bishop. It makes me miss our Pocatello house when we were within walking distance of the church.  But it's still within a 10 minute drive so I really have nothing to complain about.

Wednesday the 11th was another busy day. Brandon had been asked to come to ISU to judge the SKILLS competition for the kids there.  Remember Brandon came in Third at the national competition last year so he was excited to go help at ISU. It started at 8:00 and he had to be there at 7:30. That meant he had to leave Twin Falls early in the morning. He was gone way before the kids and I woke up. It's not exactly hard to get all the kids ready for school by myself, but it does take an extra level of patience.  (If I had a quarter for every time I had to tell Veronica to find her shoes . . . )

Anyway it was one of those days where I felt like I was running ALL.DAY.LONG. In addition to walking Marcia and writing I also had a ministering visit in the afternoon. The ministering visit turned out really fun because my new ministering sister has a Blue Macaw and Veronica got a feather.

Then we picked up Derrick and he went to therapy. The girls and I went in the back yard and I started digging out the garden. I've been looking forward to putting in a garden ever since we moved in. The weather was finally nice enough to start. The girls had fun playing in the dirt I dug out. We had a great time.

After a while I had to go inside and make dinner. We had spaghetti and I was pretty proud of myself for not just serving cereal even though I knew Brandon would be gone.

While making dinner I was keeping one eye on Facebook and getting news updates. Coverage of Corona Virus had seemed to ramp up all week. At first it was just a few warnings about how the US hadn't done a lot of tests even though the virus had been in the country for a while. And there was all the the silly stuff about people buying toilet paper for no apparent reason, but this is the day things started to get a little bit more serious. This is the day the WHO declared Corona Virus a pandemic.

First the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints announced that April General Conference would take place without an audience. For the record, I don't think this is exactly what President Nelson meant when he said that the April 2020 conference would be unlike any other.

I also started seeing news that the College Basketball tournament would be played without an audience.

And then later the Utah Jazz game was cancelled amid talk that a player probably had Corona Virus. My siblings and I have an ongoing Marco Polo conversation and lately we'd talked a lot about Corona Virus.  My sister Hillary was so very upset about the Jazz Game.

Oh and President Trump did a special address about Corona Virus, but I didn't watch it. I just read the coverage of it and later listened to clips played on the NPR Politics Podcast and The Daily from the New York Times.

I wanted Brandon to come home so I could share all the news with him. I was also beginning to realize that I was running out of energy and patience for the day. But I still made sure the kids took baths and combed out tangles and then even read a little bit of Harry Potter before the 7:30 bedtime alarm went off. Bedtime was super short because I was starting to wear thin.

All I wanted to do was crawl into bed and read the latest issue of Better Homes and Gardens but I couldn't do that until Marcia had another walk.  So I took her on a walk around the neighborhood. When we got home I was so happy to finally sit down and take a break.  And that's the exact moment Brandon came home. Normally I would have been so happy to see him, but I was completely wrung out.  I had absolutely no energy left to listen to his day. I'd also realized that I'd never made it to the store to buy more milk and a handful of other things we needed.

I burst into tears and told Brandon that I was just worn out, and could he please go to the store for me. He did. He also left me alone the rest of the night.

We finally did get to talk and he'd had a great day at ISU. He'd enjoyed being back there. And I got to tell him about the Corona Virus Related things.

On Thursday the kids' school was having a Pancakes with Parents event.  This activity sounded really fun when I heard about it. But it didn't sound so fun on Thursday morning when we were trying to get to the school early. I'd hoped for us to be there right when it started at 7:15. But that didn't work out. We ended up leaving the house only 5 minutes earlier than our regular time. I thought we'd have fun eating breakfast and talking together. But really we just sat there and ate quietly because we were so tired.

The breakfast ran over and so a lot of kids were late for class. Derrick was one of them. His paraprofessionals told me later that Derrick recited the Pledge of Allegiance by himself because he'd already missed doing it with the class. What's really funny is that he usually refuses to do the pledge. His para told me, "Now we know he knows the whole thing."

After work Veronica and I took Marcia on a walk on the canyon trail closer to our house. We decided to bring Veronica's scooter and that was a game changer.  Rather than walking and whining and getting tangled up with Marcia, Veronica could scoot off far ahead of me and then come back.  She had a great time.

When we got home I knew I'd get a lot done. I was able to finish a story I was writing and submit it to Idaho Magazine. A little bit later I got an email back saying that it had been received and they would get back to me.  This was the first time I'd heard back from a publication so that was exciting. Veronica played on my phone and took this picture while I was writing.

I worked in the garden some more on Thursday.  I didn't want to stop what I was doing to make dinner so I ordered pizza and Brandon picked it up on his way home from work. 

Thursday afternoon things started to get really crazy with Corona Virus News. It seems like every time I opened my phone there was another thing announcing closures and cancellations. The NBA cancelled the season. Disney announced a closure. And soon I was getting notifications that our church was cancelling all meetings. This was a big one. We had a ward party planned for the next day. Earlier they'd said that we were having the party, but this effectively cancelled it. 

The school district also announced that they were going to have next week Parent Teacher Conferences via phone rather than in person. This was new. 

Idaho didn't have an confirmed cases yet so our schools weren't closing, but I had friends in other states whose schools were starting to close. They were posting about that on Facebook. 

I was watching the news coming in. I wasn't panicking, but I was getting concerned.  Especially about our food situation. I usually do a big shopping trip twice a month when Brandon get's paid and then I do smaller trips once a week between those big trips. Brandon was set to get paid the next week and which coincided well with the kids Spring Break. I planned to do a big shopping trip next Wednesday in preparation for the kids being home for a week and a half. 

But now I was starting to wonder if the kids would be home sooner than that. And I was wondering if there would be any food left. I decided that I needed to go grocery shopping after dinner. Brandon agreed. 

So around 6:00 I headed to Winco. It was busy. I'd heard stories about people fighting over bottled water and toilet paper. But I didn't see anything like that. Honestly the place had a real community feel. It wasn't exactly a fun place to be, but there we all were. Going up and down the same aisles, looking over the same types of food. There was one family with some kids loudly joking about Corona Virus.  They saw some friends and made a joke and everyone around them laughed. (The mom looked like she was going to die.)  There were older people and families with little kids. I think we were all sizing each other up. Wondering if anyone was sick.  Wondering if anyone was carrying the virus without knowing it. But no one was hostile. We were just wondering, and shopping. 

The checkout lines were long, but I think I waited less than 15 minutes.  I had a lot of stuff in my cart. This was a regular shopping trip combined with Spring Break shopping. The two ladies behind me in line were really kind and patient.  They understood why I was there. The cashier was nice too.  She said she's not normally a cashier. She normally works the floor. But here she was, figuring out the job.  Somehow I got everything back in my cart.  The ladies around me cheered with me.  

When I got home the kids and Brandon helped me unload everything. The food I'd brought home, plus the food storage we already had been stocking up on, helped me feel like we were ready for whatever happened in the coming weeks. 

I'd been hoping to make it back from the store in time to get to PTA meeting at 7:00. I wasn't home until 7:30. That was fine though because I'm pretty certain the meeting was dominated by Corona Virus fears and speculation and I didn't want to sit through that.  Instead I stayed home and helped get the kids in bed.  After they were in bed I stayed up reading Facebook and enjoying the fine crop of Coronamemes that had sprung up.  

Seriously, the memes quickly became my favorite part of the epidemic. 

I found this one highly relatable. 

Idaho didn't have any confirmed cases so this meme was really popular. (And for the record the reason we didn't have confirmed cases was that we had a really low rate of tests.  So it's not like we didn't have the virus, we just didn't know for sure that we had it.)

Some clever person decided to replace the now cancelled March Madness College Basket Ball Championship with March Illness. this Bracket went around in various forms.  Brandon laughed about this meme every time he thought about it the next day.

Idaho beat Alaska and got farther than Alabama which lost to West Virginia.  But on Friday Idaho had our first confirmed case and so West Virginia won. This was probably way more entertaining than it should have been.

This was another meme I really liked. It summed up how I was handling everything. I didn't want to say that Corona Virus was nothing serious (I'd heard enough reports coming out of Italy to know that things could get very bad very fast) but I also wasn't panicking.

This one became very relevant a few days later.  We've been slowly working our way through Harry Potter 5 and on Saturday we came to the part where Professor Umbridge cancels all clubs.  Charlotte and Lydia were like, "That's happening now."

So yeah, I spent a lot of time reading memes.  Lest you think that's all I did I also read a lot of serious news stories and listened to news podcasts.  (But the memes were the most fun.)

The kids still had school and I had work on Friday.  I spent the morning calling insurance companies to make sure we could bill for tele-health appointments and making sure everything was set up for us to do that. 

After I picked Veronica up from school and we'd had lunch we took Marcia for a walk on our usual trail. That trail is near Home Depot and I decided it was time to buy wood for the garden. I'd planned on doing it that night with Brandon, but I figured it would be better to do it sooner rather than later. (I'd learned my lesson with grocery shopping.)

So Veronica and I went to Home Depot and bought 4 8 foot long 2X10 boards and 1 12 foot long 2X10.  Then Veronica stood outside the car and held Marcia on her leash while I tried to figure out how to fit the wood in the Honda. Veronica kept saying, "I think we need a man." And I kept saying, "no it will fit.  We've put lots of crazy stuff in this car before." I finally figured out the right seat configuration that allowed a seat for Veronica, a spot for Marcia, room for all the random stuff that's always in the car, and room for the wood.  I angled the wood and had the 12 foot one hanging out the passenger window.  It all fit!  Thankfully we only had to drive on neighborhood roads to get home.

We unloaded the car and then went back out so Veronica could buy somethings at the dollar store. Then we stopped at Smiths to buy Miracle Whip because I'd forgotten to get some at Winco.  While we were out and about a lady from our ward met up with me and gave me some of the food she'd bought for the ward party.  She'd bought it right before getting the email that all church gatherings were cancelled. She'd asked if anyone was interested in the food and I'd let her know I was. She'd been delivering party food to ward members all afternoon. I joked, "Who knew it was so much work to cancel a party."

Back at home I went to work on the garden.  I kept digging up grass. After all the grass I've regrown over the years this felt a little wrong.  But I really want a garden so some grass has got to go.

The kids had fun digging in the dirt in this part of the yard.

Derrick showed me the RC Plane that he loves.

Here's Veronica in her garden.

She said she was a seed.

Charlotte and Lydia's garden. 

Brandon came home and we had a quick dinner. Then I told the kids, I can wash dishes in the dark, but I can't work in the garden in the dark so forget the dishes we are going outside.  Brandon helped me build the garden boxes.  He recently bought a table saw and so it was really easy to cut the wood.  Then he helped screw everything in place.  All the kids helped us carry the first box and get it into place.  Then they helped fill it with soil. We had so much fun working together. This is the time we would have been at our ward party.  I know the party would have been fun, but this evening was also fun.

Brandon built the second box and we put that in place.  That one went on top of grass. I've been watching a lot of videos on the MIGardener Youtube channel and he swears that if you have 9 or more inches of soil the grass won't grow through.  This is to test this theory.  Brandon got out his level and made sure the boxes were level and straight. We went inside as it got dark. It was around 8:00. This was the first time all week that I was grateful for Daylight Saving Time.

I don't think we read Harry Potter this night, but I have to mention the new set of paperback books that a very kind person bought for my family. This was completely out of the blue. I was completely flabergasted when this person said they'd bought the set for my family. I kept saying, "but we are only missing books 4 and 5." They said, "But you need multiple copies for when your kids read them to themselves."  I'm still stunned.

Oh and at some point Brandon made this shelf for the twins' room. I think he put it together on Wednesday night when I needed alone time, but I didn't get a picture of it until Saturday.

Saturday started out overcast. But that didn't stop me. I went out and started turning over dirt for the second section of the garden. Rain sprinkled off and on all morning, but I got a lot done before the true rain started falling around 11:00.

Here's what the garden looked like at that stopping place.  Originally I wanted 6 garden boxes. But after pricing the wood I realized it probably wasn't smart to have more than half of our garden budget go to wood. After talking it over with Brandon we decided to only do two raised beds and have four ground level beds. Next year we can add two more boxes and then do two more after that. This will help spread things out as the boxes age as well.

It started raining hard so I went in and took a shower. Brandon took all three girls with him to Home Depot to buy some more supplies that I needed and to get some thing to start the tree house he has planned. We were already planning to work on the garden and tree house over spring break, but since most of our other plans got cancelled we realized that we'd have a lot of time to work on the garden and tree house. It seemed like a good idea to get a lot of the things we'd need for those projects.

The rain let up when Brandon came back. He'd bought weed barrier fabric for me so I was able to get to work laying bricks that go between the garden beds.  This was another cost cutting move. I wanted something other than soil/mud between the beds, but bark chips were too expensive. Then I realized I could use the bricks that were doing nothing in another area of our yard.

I got one row of bricks done before the rain came back.

Later in the evening the rain let up again. I convinced everyone to come outside and help me. Moving the bricks was slowing me down so if I had help with that I could get the second walkway done.  Charlotte and Lydia came outside and helped dig up the bricks and wheel them over to me.  Derrick picked up the bricks from where the wheelbarrow left them and handing them to me.  Then I laid the bricks.  The teamwork helped me get the job done really fast.

 We finished just as the rain started again.  This was a good stopping place so I was happy. I listened to rain fall all night long, but I didn't mind because we were at a good stopping place.

 Today was one of the strangest Sunday's I've ever had. Church was cancelled, but on Saturday our Bishop had sent out an email letting us know that it was okay to administer the sacrament in our homes.  We invited our neighbor Diantha and her mother Jennifer over to have the Sacrament with us since they don't have a priesthood holder in their home. (And also because we figured our kids might be more reverent if there were other adults present.)

Brandon had a long talk with the kids before our friends came.  He told them how they needed to be respectful. This worked for the girls, but Derrick was super confused by everything. He refused to wear a sunday shirt and refused to take the sacrament.  When it was over he threw a big tantrum and screamed for a while.  Obviously he didn't like how different this was.  But he calmed down and was happy the rest of the day. 

Even though Derrick had been a bit of a handful I still felt the spirit very strongly during our little Sacrament Service. I'm glad we were able to do this.

I spent a good part of the day making bread. When I went shopping on Thursday the store had been out of flour.  I didn't need any, but it was a reminder that I'm glad I have a wheat grinder. It was also a reminder that I've never checked to see if my wheat is any good. I've been concerned about whether or not it was exposed to too high or too low temperatures as we moved the past few years.  For the past several months I've been meaning to find time to make bread to test it out. Well this was the perfect opportunity. 

It was fun to get the grinder out and use that again. Even though it's been over 3 years since I used it Charlotte said, "Oh yes I love watching this thing!"

 The dough rose well so I figured the wheat was fine. 

 And it cooked well too.  I probably added one too many cups of flour, but other than that it was fine.

 I used molasses instead of honey because the recipe said I could substitute that and I thought I'd try that.  It made the color a little different and there was a slight gingerbread taste, but overall it was pretty standard bread.

At four I had my business class. We couldn't meet in person so we set up a zoom call. It worked really well. I'm so glad we have the technology to still be in contact even when something crazy like this is going on. 

All day long I'd been wondering if the kids would have school on Monday. The district had made the decision to completely cancel parent teacher conferences. But so far hadn't committed to cancelling school. In the morning they sent out and email saying they were waiting to hear from the Governor before making a decision.

Other Governors of other states had completely cancelled school so I expected that to happen here. But instead he left it up to the individual school districts. I started seeing things from other districts saying they were still going to have school, but that they wouldn't hold students to any attendance standards.

I was about 75% sure I wanted to keep the kids home.  But honestly I think I was more motivated by laziness rather than concern for the disease. I was really looking forward to just hanging out with the kids. Reading Harry Potter, working in the garden, watching Disney Plus. I'd already decided that since we really couldn't go anywhere for Spring Break it would make perfect sense to reactivate our Disney Plus account. Disney announced they would release Frozen Two on Disney Plus early so that sealed the deal for me.  I mentioned this to the kids and so they were super excited and hopeful that school would be cancelled.

Right as my business meeting started I got an email from the school district. They'd decided to cancel school. YAY!

When the meeting ended I had a quick talk with Brandon where we decided that to celebrate we should turn Disney Plus back on tonight and watch Frozen Two as a family. So that's what we did.  It was so fun to watch that movie. 

So that gets us caught up to tonight. Brandon still has to work for the foreseeable future.  Even if they don't have airplanes coming in at work, they still have a lot of things to keep them busy.  It's a small company with only a handful of employees. It will be easy for them to all keep their distance.  So unless someone within the company gets sick or exposed I think Brandon will be working through this whole thing. 

Meanwhile the kids and I will be enjoying some time off.  And honestly after recapping how much we did over the last two weeks I'm seeing that what we need is a chance to just hang out at home and recharge.  I'm actually really looking forward to the next few weeks. 

Good luck to you all during the next few weeks.